Mad men leading us to the brink again, an invasion that could lead to a larger conflict with no good way out, and a full-blown nuclear exchange just a little bit closer to reality.
Doomscrolling is hard, but ignorance doesn’t seem any better.
Take a moment.
Breathe.
Watch the clouds.
The helplessness and anger are strong.
How did we get here? More importantly, how do we get out?
Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Photography, Weather
With one exception, not a huge fan of any of them in my adult lifetime, and I didn’t need to buy either a new car or a new mattress, so we ignored the holiday and started using the time to catch up on a season and a half of “Star Trek: Discovery.” Time well spent – I’m enjoying it a great deal. We’re current now and looking forward to the last four episodes of Season Four. Next, we have to pick something else to get caught up on. Probably either “Star Trek: Lower Decks” or “The Expanse.”
With significantly less time pressure and an eyeball issue that requires occasional eye drops, the practice of lying down and closing my eyes and relaxing has led to a re-discovery of this “nap” thing.
Mmmmmmmmmm! “Naps!”
I know this isn’t an original thought, but little kids who are “forced” to take naps have no freakin’ clue how good they’ve got it or how much they’re going to miss naps when they’re busy doing “adult shit” eighteen to twenty hours a day.
Filed under Entertainment, Photography
A handful of days last weekend it was up into the 80’s and low 90’s here, but last week was down into the 60’s and low 70’s here, and tonight it’s damp, cloudy, drizzly, and headed for the 40’s. But that didn’t stop this one, brave, solo hibiscus from taking it’s shot at being FIRST to pop and get pollinated!
Don’t think that the hummingbirds don’t appreciate it! First, this is out of sight of where Little Bastard sits and guards the feeders, so they can hit it without being attacked. But it’s also the real stuff, not that artificial concentrate that goes into the feeders.
Give ’em hell, brave solo hibiscus!!
Filed under Flowers, Photography
It was clear and cool with the moon rising, one day past full. The picture from the iPhone was nice, but a bit blurry. It was time to get out the tripod and the light bucket lens.
Due west, the lights of Woodland Hills and Tarzana just above the trees at the center, the moon rising at the left. (Blow it up to see a bunch of detail.)
To the north-northwest, looking across the canyon.
Filed under Castle Willett, Photography
There are astronomical phenomenon that you can observe on most any clear morning or evening if you have a clear sunset or sunrise. Observing them at sunrise means getting up at an hour that’s way, WAAAY before I want to be awake, so let’s talk about sunset!
While the sunset in the west might look great, take a peek behind you just a minute or two after the sun sets. You’ll often see something called the “Belt of Venus,” with a dark, shadowy band at the horizon about as wide as your hand held horizontally at arm’s length, with a broad, diffuse pink band above it.
This was a particularly good apparition of the effect about ten days ago. Through the trees to our east on a wide-angle view, the blue-gray belt at the horizon was quite clear. That’s the Earth’s shadow, rising as the sun is setting opposite it.
Above it you can see the pink glow of refracted sunlight through the atmosphere, the sunlight being bent from the sun below the horizon behind us and spread out, similar to how a rainbow is created.
This is not a small effect needing a telescope or binoculars. It’s literally 180º wide or more!
So the next clear sunset (or sunrise, in reverse order, for the masochists in the group) take a look and impress your friends with your newfound meteorological knowledge!
You do go out and watch the sunsets with your friends, don’t you?
Filed under Astronomy, Photography
We didn’t get much actually AT our house, but you can see one of the nastier cells moving by to our west and south.
This cell dropped a pretty good load of hail in Calabasas where one of my daughters teaches high school, then went on to cause some havoc down by Santa Monica Airport and then LAX. I happened to be listening to ATC for Burbank at the time and they were getting folks diverting there who had intended to go to Santa Monica and then thought better of it. Later on I saw that some of the big commercial jets, instead of coming straight in from the east onto the runways for LAX were heading 20-30 miles north up over Covina before looping back down to catch the glideslope just because of a long tail of nasty showers and hail stretching from Long Beach to Pasadena.
It was in the mid 90’s here on Sunday for the Super Bowl – today it looked like it has snowed at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena there was so much hail.
We got a smattering of rain and it was thirty to thirty-five degrees colder than it was two days ago. Almost like East Coast weather…
Filed under Panorama, Photography, Weather
It’s been warm, above 80º every day this week, and I was wondering when the first yard lizard would wake up from their winter’s rest and come out for some photons.
I had spooked this one earlier when I was out in the back yard and it was extremely cautious and skittish, off into the bushes in a flash. However, as warm as it was, it didn’t take long for him to come back out, by which time I had grabbed the camera with the big lens.
I started walking cautiously across the yard, trying hard not to spook him again. (“SERPENTINE!!”) He wasn’t letting me out of his sight.
I did my best to look non-threatening. Plus, the sidewalk was nice and hot, so he had some incentive to stay there.
I don’t recognize this one from last year, but it may be one that has grown quite a bit. He’s very dark, and there was a pair of very dark lizards that were always on the big tree. Perhaps he’s one of that pair?
About eight feet away was as close as he was going to let me get, which was fine. I wasn’t there to harsh his mellow, he needed the energy and some ants or crickets to start rebuilding his strength.
The dark lizard and the bright white sidewalk made for some high contrast photos. A little Photoshop crop and work to bring out some detail shows some of the nice patterns on his back and tail!
Long live the lizards!
Filed under Critters, Photography
Finally caught a good view of some new avian visitors – Western bluebirds!
I had seen a couple of them here and there last year, but only for a few days and I never got any kind of decent pictures. They’re very skittish.
While it might not show that well against a blue sky, their backs and tails are quite blue and they stand out. In addition, that reddish orange chest and white belly ID’s them easily.
When I went to take the trash barrels out there were at least nine or ten out on the lawn, feeding and flitting. These two almost seemed curious about me, which is odd, but they came right over and landed on the wire above me and started watching me.
A couple others came up and landed on the gutter at the edge of the roof above the front door but took off as soon as I started going inside.
A great sighting, it brought me some happiness! I guess that just verifies that they’re bluebirds, it’s in the job description!
Filed under Birds, Photography
For the last eight years I’ve been the Finance Officer for the Commemorative Air Force Southern California Wing, a volunteer position. As of January 1st, I’ve officially been out of that position, having not run for another two-year term. But I’ve still been very busy, finalizing the 2021 accounting books, finishing up paperwork, training my replacement, and so on. For the past three long and intense days I’ve been going through our internal audit with the finance folks from the national CAF HQ in Dallas.
Now, with that audit done, my time on Staff is done. While I’m sure there will be loose ends that pop up now and then, I’m not free to find other activities for my weekends and all of the hours that had been dedicated to that position.
I’ll still be a member of the CAF in general and the SoCal Wing in particular, but I’ll be a member and occasional volunteer, not holding down what was essentially a second job.
I can think of a few things that might fill those hours in the upcoming weeks and months. For starters, there’s a TBR pile of books that’s taller than I am, and just a few things on some of the streaming services where I’m a few years behind. And who knows what could happen if this COVID thing ever allows us to start travelling again. Friends to harass, people to visit, sights to see, cons to get to, ball games to cheer at.
Onward and upward!
Filed under CAF, Photography
Back at the hangar for another long day.
I was looking for a quiet spot for a Zoom call at my real job. The museum’s closed for COVID still and was fairly quiet. At least, by airport standards.
Of course, just as I was getting ready to present in the meeting, the Ventura County Fire Department helicopter next door fired up and took off. Nothing like a jet turbine 100 yards away to make the “Mute” button your best friend!
Filed under CAF, Flying, Photography
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